Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan turned out to be the fall guy for the Dallas Cowboys' offensive shortcomings this season. Did he deserve the lion's share of the blame?

A quick look at Twitter will tell you the majority of Cowboys fans are one the same accord with Linehan's departure. Dallas' offense left much to be desired on the gridiron throughout the year, ranking 22nd in the league in total offense. While Ezekiel Elliott led the league in rushing for the second time in three years, most of the struggles on offense came in the passing game.

Cowboys Hall of Fame QB Troy Aikman cautioned observers to not just look at the team's 23rd standing in total passing yards per contest.

"I think it's unfair to say we want to build around the running game, but then we only finished (23rd) in the passing game. The problem with the Cowboys wasn't that they finished (23rd in passing yards per game). It's that they finished (16th) in yards per pass," Aikman said on KTCK 96.7FM/1310 AM The Ticket.

The Cowboys averaged just 7.4 yards a pass attempt in 2018 -- a result slightly better than 6.7 yards per attempt a season ago. Those numbers are simply not good enough to keep pace in today's pass-happy NFL.

In an effort to fix the mediocre passing attack, Dallas hired former NFL QB Jon Kitna as quarterbacks coach or a to-be-determined role and are rumored to promote Kellen Moore to offensive coordinator, in what is a coaching shakeup that has Jerry Jones feeling optimistic. Yet, it remains to be seen whether Jason Garrett will resume play calling responsibilities or if someone else will be charged with that task.

Whoever gets playing calling duties will be expected to up upgrade the aerial attack, maintain what is already a standout running game and add some ingenuity to what's been a basic offense.

Aikman is aligned with the same belief.

"I didn't see the creativity that I heard about all throughout the offseason. I didn't really see that through the whole season. But that doesn't make what they did wrong," Aikman said. "This is an offense that's been built around the running game, and they run it pretty much as well as anybody during the time that Linehan was the offensive coordinator."

To Linehan's credit, and the makeup of the roster, the Cowboys were consistently a top-notch running club during his tenure. It was the passing game and lack of creativity that led to his demise.